There’s a new psychiatric medication on
the market called Abilify MyCite. On its own, the drug Abilify is a
partial
dopamine agonist that has been approved by the Food and Drug
Administration since 2013 as an anti-psychotic
medication. It’s generally prescribed to people with
conditions such as such
as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, though questions remain
about its effectiveness
and the severity
of its side effects. The
“MyCite” pill, approved just last year, does something
new. It contains a digital
sensor that tracks whether a patient has ingested the drug, then
shares that information with doctors, family, or whoever is
programmed to receive it.

The use of Web technology to track
medication has been emerging over the past decade or so. The
technology has arrived with the usual benefits and risks of the
Internet
of Things: timely reminders, cool gadgets, vulnerability to
hacking, loss of control over one’s data, state surveillance. When
it comes to a pill like MyCite, America’s history of coercive
psychiatric medication intensifies the risks. If the medical
technology is simply used to help people remember to voluntarily take
their pills, so much the better. Alas, that’s unlikely to be the
case.

In order for AVs to work, they have to
snag all kinds of data about the world around them: where precisely
other objects are at any given moment and how fast they are moving.
That data can seemingly be kept forever.

Under current law, all of that data can
be obtained relatively easily by federal law enforcement. In other
words, if you’re a privacy-minded citizen, your threat model just
changed.

“Because of all of the sensors and data
that is being captured—[AVs] are giant recording things,” Jaeger
said. “Even if they’re not involved in an incident directly,
they captured some of it. Maybe infrared data or something.”

This is profoundly different from older
cars that lack such sensors and do not gather up such vast quantities
of stored data. As such, Tesla’s terms and conditions—like those
of other non-automotive tech companies, including Apple, Google, and
more—say that the company will hand over data to law enforcement
when legally
compelled to do so. Waymo did not respond to Ars’ multiple
queries for clarification its position, so how far that assistance
will go is anyone’s guess.

Read more on Ars
Technica about an important case that may significantly impact
law enforcement’s too-ready access to your data.

This Week
In Credit Card News: A Record Number Of Data Breaches; Starbucks
Enters Credit Card Market

The Identity Theft Resource Center reports the
number of U.S. data breaches reached an all-time high in 2017. Data
breaches totaled 1,579, up 45% from 2016. 55% hit the business
sector; 24% hit the medical/healthcare industry. Of the 179 million
records exposed last year, nearly 158 million were Social Security
numbers, accounting for 88% of all exposed records. Nearly 20% of
breaches resulted in information on debit and credit
cards being exposed.

Are you the kind of crazy we insure? Are you too
crazy to insure? Is this just a way to reduce insurance costs?

Susan Eyman, a psychologist in Lawrence,
Kansas, told a patient last year that the patient’s insurance
company had requested her notes from their therapy sessions as part
of an audit of her billings.

Eyman said the patient was shocked. The
notes included intensely personal things about trauma he had told her
in strict confidence. He asked if she could assure the
confidentiality of the notes once Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas
had them.

“And I said, ‘No, of course not,’ ”
Eyman said. “Of course I can’t. If you send this information
out there, it’s out there.”

Eyman
said she refused to turn over the notes and was forced to pay back
thousands in BCBS Kansas reimbursements.

I recently experienced this same issue myself, but
with a different insurer. A long-term care patient’s insurer
suddenly started asking me for therapy notes. I was appalled,
because psychotherapy notes are among the most sensitive notes
anywhere. I think asking for therapy goals and some measure of
progress is appropriate and acceptable, but actual therapy notes?
I’ll see what, if anything, we can negotiate, I guess, and then
decide what to do.

Social media users, advertisers and regulators
were aghast this past week over revelations in a report
by The New York Times of a thriving cottage industry
that creates fake followers on Twitter, Facebook or other channels
for anybody willing to pay for them. Called “bots,” these fake
accounts are available in the thousands to those that want to boost
their popularity with tweets or retweets on Twitter, or Facebook
likes or shares.

Although Twitter and Facebook officially frown on
users buying followers and regularly take down fake accounts, they
have a vested interest in the popularity scores of their users
because advertisers use those metrics. The political will also may
not be readily available to legislate against buying followers,
experts say, pointing out that some of President Trump’s appointees
also bought followers, in addition to others such as computer
billionaire Michael Dell and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s
actress wife Louise Linton.

“This is a dirty and open secret of social
media,” said Kartik
Hosanagar, Wharton professor of operations, information and
decisions. “This has been going on for a while, and The New
York Times article finally puts the spotlight on this shadow
economy. Overall, social media is a complete mess right now in terms
of the sanctity of information circulating on it.”

Links

About Me

I live in Centennial Colorado. (I'm not actually 100 years old., but I hope to be some day.) I'm an independant computer consultant, specializing in solving problems that traditional IT personnel tend to have difficulty with... That includes everything from inventorying hardware & software, to converting systems & data, to training end-users. I particularly enjoy taking on projects that IT has attempted several times before with no success. I also teach at two local Universities: everything from Introduction to Microcomputers through Business Continuity and Security Management. My background includes IT Audit, Computer Security, and a variety of unique IT projects.